Description:The Planeterrainium is an immersive and interactive experience that allows users to explore the surface of Mars in apparent 3D. Users control the 3D floor below them with a WiiMote in order to travel to craters, dunes, and other interesting features on Mars.

Description:The Digital Solar Explorer (DSE) allows users to view different wavelengths of the sun, on an actual sphere! The exhibit is interactive, and users can spin around the sun using a WiiMote, and click different fun facts to learn about the sun.

Description:Our exhibit will consist of multiple science demonstrations geared toward engaging families in STEM learning and inquiry. The goal is to foster scientific inquiry and inspire parents to design their own family learning investigations to do at home. RIT students who are members of the Family Science team at the Insight Lab will demonstrate aspects of physics, biology, chemistry, and earth science in a way that is both engaging and informative for children and their parents together.

Description:Modern living room media setups are normally centered around a television. While larger televisions can reach an 80" diagonal, 40"-60" displays are more common. This can limit the amount of immersion that any media experience can offer, as the display only takes up a small fraction of your vision. The RIT Immersive Living Room system overcomes this boundary by integrating a video projector into the conventional living room setup. The projector extends the display of the television by projecting additional content onto the surrounding wall and furniture, adapting the projected data around your specific living room setup. We will be demonstrating some simple uses of this system, such as a Microsoft Kinect-based game.

Description:Our system brings the video call experience to a whole new level. Integrating tracking and automated cinematography based on a person's location and orientation, the idea of intelligent telepresence means that a person is no longer confined to a chair during a video call. Our vision is to ultimately make the video call a family-friendly and convenient form of communication.

Description:Interactive Landscapes is basically a very high tech sandbox. By passing infrared light through sand, we can measure the thickness of the sand. This information is then processed by a computer and the results are displayed back down onto the sand.

Description:Revealing the Universe will show visitors how professional astronomers view and make discoveries about the Universe. We will have scale models of space and ground based telescopes on display, as well as images that astrophysics graduate students have taken using these telescopes. An optical demonstration of how telescopes collect light from distant objects will also be on display, and visitors will be able to see themselves with an infrared camera, just like how certain telescopes view the universe in infrared light. Solar telescopes will be set up so visitors can safely look at the sun and take pictures of it with their smart phones, and kids will be able to play astro-trivia to win space themed prizes.

Description:Explore the sizes of various objects in our universe to scale, from sub atomic particles to large clusters and galaxies. A Microsoft Kinect is used to make this an interactive experience, allowing users to utilize arm movements to change the current scale of objects being displayed.

Description:See the heat coming from your hand! Our booth at Imagine RIT will include various demonstrations of imaging and optical technologies which show interesting properties of light and physics. Our goal is to spread imaging, optics, physics, and engineering interest from the SPIE/OSA Student Chapter.

Description:Travel throughout the galaxy and view the various planets within our solar system. Three screens engulf the user, creating an immersive experience that places the user right in space. A Microsoft Kinect is integrated with the system so that the user can use arm movements and voice commands to have full control of their travels!

Description:An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft capable of operating autonomously through an autopilot or remotely by an operator on the ground. UAVs significantly reduce operational costs and pilot risk, and when properly configured can be successfully operated by less experienced users compared to full size aircraft. A UAV can fulfill a variety of mission profiles, including aerial imaging. A UAV will be constructed combining the work of previous projects which will carry a payload of imaging hardware and software to accomplish Imaging science research and applications. This will allow the UAV to fly over GPS waypoints and take pictures at each of the desired locations remotely and save the picture along with the GPS data to be retrieved when the UAV lands.

Description:The goal of the Imaging Science Graduate Project is to develop and build a system that will detect road hazards from warm-blooded animals the size of a house cat and larger and provide a driver with an alert that is sufficient for avoiding a collision. This system is referred to as the Hazard Detection and Alert System, or HDAS for short. The Imagine RIT exhibit will represent the culmination of this two semester, multidisciplinary effort by a team of 18 PhD students from the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science. The HDAS is comprised of many different components. For detecting hazards, the HDAS utilizes two forward looking thermal-IR cameras mounted to the hood of a truck with overlapping fields of view. Video from these cameras are fed to an image processing algorithm which filter out the road hazards from the rest of the scene. The algorithms used were developed by the HDAS team in-house and are based on the latest in image processing technology. Information from the algorithms is then passed to an alert system which provides the driver with both visual and audio cues which provide the location and severity of the road hazard. The audio cues are provided by stereo speakers which indicate whether or not the hazard is on the left or right hand side and the threat severity by repetition rate of the beeping cue. The visual cue consists of an array of twelve eye-safe lasers which shine onto reflective surfaces on the windshield. the location of the cue, which the driver sees as a bright dot, corresponds to the location of the hazard from the drivers point of view. The Imagine RIT exhibit will consist of a scaled demonstration of the alert system as well as a video presentation showing the image processing algorithm in action. For the alert demonstration, a visitor will have the opportunity to sit inside an HDAS simulator. The simulator will have a screen showing video from the perspective of a person driving down a street and will end with a deer suddenly popping out. Between the visitor and screen will be a glass pane simulating the HDAS windshield. The visitor will be alerted to the oncoming deer just as they would in the full system, with visual cues provided by laser spots reflected off the reflective coating on the windshield and audio cues from the speakers. In addition to the HDAS simulator, a visitor will also have the opportunity to see how the image processing algorithm performs. This will be done by a presentation which shows the algorithm identifying road hazards in thermal video. The thermal video will be actual HDAS test data taken while the system was being driven down a road.

Description:Using an eye tracking setup we will be tracking the eyes of visitors as they attempt to find Waldo on a Where's Waldo puzzle. Their eye movements will be recorded and examined after they have completed the game. An interactive scoreboard will be kept, and by clicking on someones time you will be able to see the path their eyes traveled.

The DSE allows users to view the sun projected on an inflatable sphere. There are numerous different views that show the sun's surface in different frequencies. It uses a Wii remote for navigation and has different push pin facts on the surface for each view.

Come experience a journey through our universe on a galactic scale. Learn what galaxies are, how they form, what they look like, and how astronomers observe them. The work of astrophysical sciences and technology graduate students will be on display, along with a fun and interactive look into the largest objects in our universe. Come participate in NASA's Galaxy Zoo project, and see our scale size of the universe demonstration. There will also be solar viewing through a telescope, pending good weather, and astro-trivia where you can test your space knowledge and win fun astronomy prizes. Kids and adults can create their own galaxy and help populate our "RIT Deep Field" image of the distant universe, and learn how to search for deep space objects using Star Walk on their iPad.

We will have a table set up where we assist Girl Scouts with exercises aimed at learning about astronomy and science. For example, we'll explain how to earn the "Sky Badge." We will investigate the sky and find out more about the planets, stars, and solar system. We will also make sky art based on what we've learned about the stars and skies.

"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope." Imagine if you had the ability to recreate this iconic moment from movie history right before your own eyes. Well, imagine no more. The multidisciplinary student initiated project team will be using their innovative 3D projection system to display volumetrically correct images in real space. Visible from different perspectives, 360 degrees around, this system presents an entirely new way of displaying images. The entire team that designed and built the system will be present to discuss how the design process progressed and how the system can be used in the field.

Learn how to how to incorporate RIT Insight Lab Projects into the classroom. These projects include Space Adventure, Planeterrainium, Digital Solar Explorer, Scales of the Universe, and Stepping Stones for Research.

The Planeterrainium is an immersive presentation that displays planetary surfaces in apparent 3D. It was created in the Spring quarter of 2011 with the goal of providing a more exciting and interactive educational tool to show the surface of Mars by projecting 3D images of its surface.

Hear what somebody eavesdropping on a scrambled telephone conversation might have heard. Analog scramblers provided Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill a sense of security while discussing secret war plans. We've re-created a scrambler, using a Raspberry Pi (a $25 computer) and open-source software. Try to guess what people are saying. Hear your own speech scrambled. And learn a fundamental bit of mathematics that makes it all work!

Come join RIT's Venture Creations Incubator as we showcase some of our startup company clients: EnergyWise Partners LLC, FluxData, Inc., and R-Display & Lighting, LLC. You'll have a chance to learn about these companies and their exciting projects, meet the entrepreneurs behind the companies, and learn about how RIT is supporting the development and growth of startups throughout our region.

Take a look at a variety of objects within our universe, from the plank length to the size of the entire observable universe! Use a Microsoft Kinect to control the objects you want to explore and compare in size.

See the world as you never have before! Our team has built a Schlieren system to image air currents. Put your hand in front of our system and see a live video of the heat coming from it. This unique imaging system is used to see air flows that are invisible to the naked eye. Learn a little about the science that goes into this technology and the engineering of an imaging system.

Space Adventure allows users to soar through the solar system using only their body and voice! Zoom in and out of planets, rotate them, and travel to new planets without ever touching a remote or controller. The galaxy is at your fingertips!

Did you know that weather phenomena are not specific to the Earth but also occur in space? While these events are not rain, snow, sleet, or hail, space has its own specific weather that affects our world. Utilizing a visual interactive display portraying the research on predicting space weather conducted here at RIT, this exhibit will allow our visitors to trigger weather events such as solar flares and sunspots, and both audibly and visually explain the effects each has on our own environment. It will also explain how being able to predict solar weather can help us protect ourselves and improve our lives. This exhibit will be a part of the Frontiers of Science II class and grouped with other exhibits provided from the Insight Lab.

Have you ever wondered how RIT conducts new and exciting research? Come and explore the RIT research labs at our exhibit! Learn about the technology used in the scientific process as well as the people behind the ongoing research. This will be demonstrated through an interactive virtual tour that showcases current research at RIT. Experience the innovation through a Web-app that brings RIT's research facilities to you. Part of Frontiers of Science II course.

Try your hand at cartoon and sports trivia using imaging technology that takes a snapshot of your answers! Use our provided cards to answer a series of questions as a team for our webcam to pick up. That webcam's image will be used to automatically tally your answers!

Move over, Superman: You're not the only one with X-ray vision! In this exhibit, the multidisciplinary freshman imaging project design team will demonstrate the operation of their multi-camera array--a high-tech device that allows a user to see through objects as if they weren't there. Meet the students who designed and built the device, and learn how it can be used in a variety of applications. THIS IS THE FUTURE OF IMAGING!

2012

Description:Experience live 3D imaging like you've never experienced it before! The multidisciplinary Freshman Imaging Project Design Team will demonstrate the operation of their system for creating 3D computer models of human heads for advanced medical applications. Meet the students who designed and built this unique device, get your head scanned, and learn how physicians will be using it in a clinical setting. This is a glimpse into the future of medical imaging!

Description:Explore the surfaces of different planets in the solar system in 3D ... right beneath your feet! In this exhibit, fresh back from the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., you will have the chance to roam around different planets in the solar system, wearing your free pair of 3D glasses so that you can almost imagine that you are flying above the planets surface just below you.

Description:Collecting photographs from balloons dates back to the Civil War, when mobile darkrooms were brought out into the battlefield and glass image plates were developed on the spot. With the camera technology available today due to their use in cellular phones, we can now create a very small, balloon-based, multiple camera system that can produce very high resolution photos of the ground and view them, in real time, on devices like the Apple iPad. Visitors will be able to view images from a balloon flying around campus on their own mobile devices or at the exhibit booth.

Description:Human communication is much more than verbal. Our facial expression and eye movements also are critical in conveying important information about our feelings. In this exhibit, we present custom-built systems, which capture and use facial expressions and eye gaze to manipulate computer-generated characters and create emotionally expressive artwork. Visitors will be able to create artwork using their eyes and face, which will be available for later viewing on the Internet.

Description:We present a novel gaze-based image retrieval application. The application is designed to be run on a dual monitor setup with a separate eye tracking device dedicated to each monitor. A source image is displayed on one monitor and the retrieved images are displayed on the second monitor. The user selects one or more objects or regions in the source image by fixating on them. The system then retrieves images containing similar objects from an image database. These are displayed in a grid on the second monitor. The user can then fixate on one of these images to select it as the new source image and the process can be repeated until a satisfactory image is found.

Description:Experience two of our highly immersive and interactive presentation technologies – the SCUBE (Science Cube) and the Digital Solar Explorer! Visitors will experience and learn about a variety of science topics, while enjoying themselves at the same time!

Description:The SPIE Student Chapter at RIT is affiliated with the SPIE professional society serving the optical engineering and related industries worldwide. Visitors will learn about the chapter’s activities, including tours of Corning Glass, JML Optical, Optimax, and other businesses in the Rochester area. We also bring guest speakers to RIT to discuss current research in a wide set of imaging and engineering fields.https://sites.google.com/a/g.rit.edu/spie-student-chapter-at-rit/

Description:We are developing tangible display systems that support natural interaction with virtual surfaces. Tangible displays are based on modern mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad that incorporate high-resolution displays, graphics hardware, webcams, and accelerometers as standard equipment. Custom software allows the orientation of the display screen and the position of the observer to be tracked in real-time. Using this technology, we have developed three applications that we will show: tangiPaint which allows users to create digital “oil paintings” that have rich surface colors, gloss, and relief; tangiNgrave that allows users to create woodcuts and worked metal artwork; and phantoPad that allows users to interact with 3D virtual objects that appear to be emerging from the display screen. This work represents some first steps toward developing advanced display systems that have more of the properties of real “stuff.”

Description:RIT's Venture Creations business incubator exhibit will showcase four of our startup company clients (including FluxData, Inc.). You'll have a chance to learn about these companies and their exciting projects, meet the entrepreneurs behind the companies, and learn how RIT is supporting the development and growth of startups throughout our region.

2011

This exhibit will demonstrate three dimensional scanning using a structured light system. Visitors will have a chance to get their face scanned and placed into a three dimensional animation that will be sent to them by email.

Experience digital imagery like you've never experienced it before! The multidisciplinary Freshman Imaging Project Design Team will demonstrate the operation of their "PTM Dome" - a high-tech device which creates a new and unique class of interactive digital images which allow the viewer to examine objects in ways that are impossible with conventional images.

Explore the surfaces of different planets in the solar system in 3D ... right beneath your feet! In this exhibit you will have the chance to roam around different planets in the solar system, and get a free pair of 3D glasses so that you can almost imagine that you are flying above the planets surface just below you.

Interacting with a computer using mouse input has been practiced for many decades. Technological advancement has led to new modes of interaction, such as touchpad, joysticks and voice-driven systems. The latest trend is the usage of eye gaze for interaction with the system. Visitors will learn about the latest developments in this area.

This exhibit includes an eye-safe ground-based laser system that can scan its environment in 3D at very high density (2mm spot spacing). A visitor will be be exposed to 3D remote sensing and allowed to operate the 3D laser scanner, with that person being the "target". The scanner will generate a detailed virtual 3D point cloud of the person, which the user can then manipulate and interact with.

An aircraft flying over campus will relay images live to this exhibit, demonstrating how imaging technology can be used for emergency response. The high resolution imagery will be provided by sensors developed by the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing lab in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science. These sensors were used to collect imagery in support of relief efforts in Haiti last year.

TangiPaint is a digital painting and engraving application that provides the experience of working with real materials such as oil paint or copper sheeting. Using fingers on the touchscreen of an iPad or iPhone, users can lay down strokes of thick, three-dimensional paint on a simulated canvas, or cut 3D grooves in a substrate. Then using the Tangible Display technology introduced at Imagine RIT last year, users can tilt and reorient the display screen to see the gloss and relief or "impasto" of the simulated surface, and modify it until they get the appearance they desire. TangiPaint represents a first step toward developing interactive digital art media that look and behave like real materials.

The exhibit will teach people how HST collects light from distant objects, photographs them using CCD cameras, and how astronomers use these data to do science and create beautiful pictures. At the exhibit, visitors can view HST images, learn how they are obtained, and do some observing of their own using a 12in Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

Explore the star at the center of our Solar System that makes life as we know it possible. View the Sun in ways that only modern technology make possible. You are put in control of the Sun with our motion control technology and spherical projection system. Observe the life cycle of the Sun, as well as its current activity. See what you take for granted every day in a whole new light.

Visitors will learn about Astronomy research topics being studied by RIT students and see how we gain information from distant objects using the entire spectrum of light. Using Instruments that can "see" what our eyes aren't capable of seeing helps Astronomers unveil hidden features of galaxies, planets, stars and nebulae. At this exhibit visitors can control an interactive display that shows a mulitwavelength view of the universe.

The purpose of the Digital Immersive Cube, a.k.a The Scube is to immerse its viewers in a truly unique learning experience. Participants enter the cube 10 people at a time and are exposed to cool and informative information about evolution, global warming, the galaxy, invasive species, and even some of the world's most important inventions.

Come visit our activity and have a blast with your family! Work together as a family to design a rocket out of recyclable materials and basic supplies from around the house and then watch it soar through the sky. Once you are done, try again, doing something different to see just how far you can go!

We present a system that recognizes math entered using a finger or stylus ('pen') on a tablet computer (iPad). The algorithms and interface used in this system have been developed and refined by faculty and students in the Golisano College.